Carrick delivers five-minute mea culpa at Man United press conference before a question is asked

Michael Carrick took the unusual step of delivering an unprompted five-minute speech at his Carrington press conference on Friday, acknowledging Manchester United’s poor recent form and pledging to turn it around before a single question had been put to him.

The 45-year-old leaned forward at the desk and told assembled media he wanted to “say a few things” — then proceeded to speak for five minutes and 36 seconds in what amounted to a candid and passionate call to arms. The move drew comparisons to Sir Alex Ferguson, who would occasionally open press conferences with a prepared statement when he felt the moment demanded it.

Carrick was direct about the scale of the problem. “We haven’t done well enough lately,” he said. “We’ve had a spell that we’re really not happy with. Wednesday was a bad night. It was a bad night for a lot of reasons, and it was a bad night that kind of hurt a lot.”

The United head coach was particularly pointed about the impact on supporters who had travelled to watch Wednesday’s performance, which he described as “really unacceptable.” “My responsibility is to get a team on the pitch that represents this football club, represents the supporters, and they can be proud of the identity that we show,” he said. “We have gone away from that just recently in certain games, which I’m totally fully aware of and definitely doing something about.”

Carrick acknowledged that the club had enjoyed five months of relative success earlier in the season before results deteriorated, and was unequivocal that the current run was not good enough. “I think recently we haven’t had a good time. I think that’s pretty obvious,” he said. “We’ve lost our way, but we’ll get it back.”

For a brief moment as Carrick composed himself before speaking, there was speculation that he might announce his resignation or confirm an imminent departure, but the speech was instead a firm statement of intent from a manager determined to arrest the slide.